Perth man fined $58000 for causing VA to divert his flight

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markis10

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A man has been fined $10,000 and ordered to pay more than $48,000 to an airline for disrupting a flight to Sydney and forcing it to return to Perth.


Brenden James Tume, 23, pleaded guilty in the Perth Magistrates Court today, to two charges arising from the Virgin flight, carrying 81 passengers and crew, in July last year.


The court was told Tume was intoxicated and fell asleep as soon as he boarded the late afternoon flight.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-...-58k-over-abusive-behaviour-on-flight/6035610
 
It says
The court heard Virgin suffered a significant financial loss for fuel and to accommodate passengers for the night because a curfew prevented it from arranging another plane.


To me this is an example of how crazy the curfew is.
Why wouldn't this qualify for an exemption. If I was on that plane I would be furious if I had to spend the night in Perth and miss a days work
 
The article says that the plane landed back in Perth at about 7pm, which would have been 9pm Sydney time. Even if it turned around straight away it would have missed curfew in Sydney by several hours. Can curfew be exempted if the incoming flight knows it will be that late before it's even left the origin airport?
 
To me this is an example of how crazy the curfew is.
Why wouldn't this qualify for an exemption. If I was on that plane I would be furious if I had to spend the night in Perth and miss a days work

  • Unlike the last time VA pressured the delegate of the Minister to successfully get dispensation, the delegate this time must not have been a p****.
  • I don't think it is likely that the Minister would grant dispensation just because one nut disrupted the flight and about eighty-one others (according to the article, quite low numbers actually) are inconvenienced, versus p*****g off a bunch of (mostly geriatric) voters.

Come to think of it, VA probably didn't even ask for dispensation knowing the circumstances, but in any case, merely 81 passengers would need to light a fire under the relevant Minister who is responsible for granting dispensation under the curfew. Or, in this case, more precisely, the perpetrator which forced the plane to go back.

Can curfew be exempted if the incoming flight knows it will be that late before it's even left the origin airport?

Of course it can (dispensation can be granted); whether it will be granted or not is a whole different thing.

And of course the lack of dispensation doesn't mean that the aircraft can't fly to Sydney; it just means if it arrives and it broke the curfew, then the airline will face a fine if it doesn't have a good reason to break it (e.g. emergency) or had obtained dispensation beforehand.

What is the bet this wont be paid?

Good to see justice...

I guess they might put him on a payment plan of sorts, e.g. take a bit out of his salary each time. Either that or if he doesn't pay then the state will enforce payment one way or another, or his sentence will be upgraded to imprisonment. Of course, I guess if he pleads "undue hardship" by having to pay under the terms of the ruling, they may just let him pay a lot slower.

To be honest, it's not a big amount compared to the inconvenience caused, but seeing as most people in his shoes have previously got away with next to or literally nothing, it's something.

Someone later showed his Facebook profile posting about the incident, showing absolutely no remorse. Just shows you can rehearse for your day in court.
 
Idiot.

Couldn't the flight have left at midnight to land in SYD at 6 am to avoid Having to overnight everyone?
 
Brenden James Tume, 23, pleaded guilty in the Perth Magistrates Court today, to two charges arising from the Virgin flight, carrying 81 passengers and crew, in July

81 pax that's an empty plane even if it was a 737...
 
Wonder how far into the flight they were ? Cant understand why they would turn around to Perth instead of diverting to KGI or ADL.. ?
 
Wonder how far into the flight they were ? Cant understand why they would turn around to Perth instead of diverting to KGI or ADL.. ?

ADL is about 2/3 of the way flying from PER-SYD. Would have to be a fair way into the flight for them to divert to ADL.

I'm guessing it wasn't a serious enough emergency to divert to KGI. Not only would that be rather inconvenient (would KGI be open at that time?), but you'd seriously hose 81 passengers trying to find appropriate accommodation.
 
He must have been on drugs or something...who wakes up aggressive like that out of no where?!
 
This guy should be totally held responsible for his actions, and it is good to see he got fined a substantial amount as opposed to something like a $500 fine and a good behaviour bond. Obviously I wasn't on the flight so don't know how he appeared - but if he was so drunk/drugged up that he immediately passed out after boarding, shouldn't Virgin have denied him boarding?
 
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He must have been on drugs or something...who wakes up aggressive like that out of no where?!

The article mentions that he had taken / been on some sort of drugs before he boarded - one of those drugs was eventually disputed despite his reportedly admitting it at the time.

Obviously I wasn't on the flight so don't know how he appeared - but if he was so drunk/drugged up that he immediately passed out after boarding, shouldn't Virgin have denied him boarding?

I guess you can still look normal (or very fatigued) enough to board an aircraft. Haven't you ever tried to sneak past / look passable to someone even though you're not 100%?

Of course, if he truly was wasted enough not to board, then someone could have argued his sentence be less / Virgin sharing some responsibility for his disrupting the flight.
 
I'm glad this idiot received a hefty fine, there should be more of it. The travelling public are well and truly over being held to ransom mid-air by these selfish idiots

He must have been on drugs or something...who wakes up aggressive like that out of no where?!

The recreational use of drugs used by people is beyond ridiculous. It's rarely only alcohol involved in these kind of incidents which means somebody can be totally sober when boarding then pop pills with a drink and all of a sudden you have an aggressive uncontrollable pax.

I was on a DRW/BNE flight when that exact scenario happened with an off duty policeman witnessing the pax disposing of his stash of drugs down the a/c WC on descent into BNE as by then he'd probably figured that he would be met on arrival and there were no less than 6 police awaiting his arrival in the aerobridge.

Apparently he had several outstanding warrants for his arrest.
 
No fly list for a year or more he should be and then be paying a premium to fly after that! Should be minimum fine of $100k !
 
Harsh penalty?

It would be really interesting to know just how far they had flown and why turn around to PER and not continue to ADL? At a guess would this flight have taken off around 4:00pm initially to make curfew in SYD so would been in the air 60-90 minutes? Wouldn't ADL be the logical choice at that time?
 
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